Rumor: Next Xbox to not have a disc drive

MCV reported this morning that they learned from Microsoft that the next will NOT have a disc drive. MCV stated that their source described to them this information under what the source claimed was the “strictest NDA ever they have ever encountered”. Although, the article stated that the Xbox will come with “some sort of interchangeable solid-state card storage”. However, it is unknown whether this “solid-state card storage” will come as a standard with the console or in a format akin to SD.

They moved on to say that an E3 2012 reveal could be very likely. The abandoning of physical copies could mark an entirely new era of gaming, although this could affect current gamer’s collections of games – in a way familiar with the backwards compatibility issues with some PS3 models being incompatible with PS2 games and the Xbox only being compatible with a handful of games – by voiding the Xbox games gamers have this generation. It’s also just bad for the retail business, overall. When MCV contacted Microsoft, they replied with an enthralling response however neither confirming nor denying this speculation:

“Xbox 360 has found new ways to extend its lifecycle like introducing the world to controller-free experiences with Kinect and re-inventing the console with a new dashboard and new entertainment content partnerships. We are always thinking about what is next for our platform and how to continue to defy the lifecycle convention. Beyond that we do not comment on rumors or speculation.”

Stay tuned to GDinews to see what happens leading up to E3 as Xbox rumors, speculation and reports have been rolling in pretty vastly.

Source: MCV [http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/exclusive-no-disc-drive-for-next-xbox/092534]